


Find Yourself Right Where You Belong

by KiannaLeigh



Category: My Candy Love
Genre: Cinnamon Roll Ken, Crushes, F/M, First Love, Friendship/Love, Gen, Military School, Personal Growth, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Acceptance, Self-Discovery, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 06:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8522104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiannaLeigh/pseuds/KiannaLeigh
Summary: Flash fiction of Kentin's time in military school/boot camp. How he went from self-doubting to self-assured.





	

It was surprising how easy it was to adjust to boot camp. The first few days were pain, but Ken would admit that was his own doing by being stubborn.

When his father announced he was sending him away to the military school, Kentin had been devastated. But he had been so for all the wrong reasons. What had really gotten him what the fact that he was going to be sent away from Candy. It felt like a punishment worse than death. He felt like Romeo hearing the Prince’s decision of exile. Ken had wept, literally wept like his life was ending.

Of course his father had not been moved by his weeping, and Ken had known as the tears began to sting his eyes that it would be so. He hadn’t been crying in an attempt to change what was, but he couldn’t help himself when it came down to it. Ken had felt at the time that his life was coming to an end and that he would never recover from the loss of his beloved Candy.

And so for the first few days of military school, that was what focused on. Every task set before him with torture because he was away from the life he knew and the girl he loved. He failed miserably at everything he attempted because he wasn’t really in his heart trying to succeed.

The teachers and his upper classmen mentors told him it was shock; that he would get over it. Ken resented them for it. As of the loss of his love was something he could merely put behind him. But then one day, he’d been left to run laps as a punishment for being tardy to one of his classes.

He started running, annoyed at the punishment, angry at his father for sending him to this stupid school, and heartbroken over Candy. The first three laps were hell, then he imagined what Candy would say if she saw him. He figured she’d been yelling encouragement and clapping. Candy was always so sweet, always telling him he could do more than he thought he could. Replaying their conversations, remembering all the advice she’d given, even when she was busy with her own troubles – which endlessly seemed to find her – made Ken feel a little better. When someone called for him suddenly it made him jump.

“Kentin!” the voice said. It was Vennie, an upper classman who’d seemed to make it his mission to look after Ken. “God, have you been here all this time?”

“Yea. I had to run laps for being tardy.”

“For the free period, Kentin! Not the rest of the day. Are you okay?”

“What do you mean the rest of –“ Ken looked down at this watch and was surprised to find hours had gone by. “I … I’m sorry. I guess I just spaced out.”

“You got in the zone!” Vennie said. “I knew you could do it. Come on I’ll take you to the nurse. Your legs are going to start killing you.” Vennie put a hand on his shoulder and ushered him out the door. “So what were you thinking about? That girl again?”

“Candy,” Ken reminded him. “Yea. I was thinking how she’d been encouraging me, if she could see me.”

“That’s a good trick. The professors have us use it all the time. Imagine the person you want to make proud and make them proud. I always knew you had it in you. Here, look!”

Vennie stopped suddenly. Up the down the hallways were cases of old pictures of past students and the trophies they had won.

“Look at that kid! The one with a girl next to him.”

Ken squinted and looked. “Wow. She’s almost bigger than him. Is that his sister?”

“Nope. Daughter of a family friend. Her dad had gone here, so his dad sent him to toughen him up.”

Ken snorted. “Of course he did. Did it work?”

“Well they got married,” Vennie mused. “And then they sent you here.”

“What?!” Ken looked at the picture again and this time he saw them similarities between past and present. His mother’s soft smile, his father’s terrible haircut, and in the back by the door: “Granddad? Holy shit! I mean-!”

Vennie laughed loudly. “Oh my god! I am telling!” He hooted with laughter again. “See Kentin. It’s cool. You’d be surprised what you’re capable of when you really try.”

“Yea … I guess.”

“Come on. Nurse.”

“Right.”

Ken walked away from the case, but thought of picture. He wondered how his mother had thought of his father when he came back from this school. He wondered how his father had thought of himself. Maybe, Ken considered, his father wasn’t trying to toughen him up out of shame of him. Maybe it was something else.

So, Ken tried. He studied hard; he worked out. When he broke his glasses, he opted for contacts, so he would drop the new pair as well. And strangely enough, he thought of Candy less. He still loved her, that much would probably never change. But now she wasn’t his everything. She was a piece of his heart and his heart was becoming more complete.

When his father told him he was pulling him from the military school and sending him back to Sweet Amoris, Ken had been thrilled. He could see Candy again, and maybe they could go for runs together. And even if she didn’t become his girlfriend that was okay, but she was his friend, maybe his best friend. And from now on, he was going to be as good to her as she’d been to him. No more hiding behind her and hoping she’d been his perfect goddess and savior. The word power-couple popped into Ken mind.

Standing at the gates of Sweet Amoris, Ken smiled. It was like coming home. And being away for a while had been good for him, after all. He’d found himself.

“Ken?” a soft voice said. Candy was standing there, watching him. She’d come out of the gate without him noticing.

“Oh, hey Candy,” he said sheepishly.

“You’re back! And you got taller. How dare you be taller than me?”

Ken laughed and close the distance between them. He really was taller than her. “Hey Candy,” he said squeezing her.

“Ken!”

“Uh, it’s Kentin now.”

“Kentin!” she repeated with no loss of enthusiasm. “Welcome home.”

He smiled. “Good to be here.”


End file.
